Boxing Clever
The series has been on hiatus since 2011's 'Fight Night: Champion' and EA have since focused on developing their 'UFC' series of games since then, but are now attempting a comeback into the ring.
Sources told VideoGamesChronicle that EA had put the franchise on hold in the 2010's as the likeness and image rights for the biggest names in boxing became too expensive, but having developed numerous UFC titles, they are keen to return to the world of boxing.
A studio-wide email, seen by VideoGameChronicle, read that strong marketplace competition had made it challenging to staff up for 'Fight Night', which was intended to enter production alongside UFC, and that it did not want to split its staff between two fighting game projects.
The game is in the incredibly early stages of production, with the EA Canada developing one more UFC game before fully committing to a new 'Fight Night' title.
EA Canada told staff that its focus would be on EA Sports UFC 5 for the foreseeable future, to ensure that UFC 5 will be delivered at “high quality”, the email reads.
“We’re very excited about 'UFC 5' and… we want to eliminate the split focus that several members of our leadership team have had over the past while so we can solely focus on delivering migration and UFC 5 at high quality,” it reads.
The new 'Fight Night' title is going by the code name 'Moneyball', and was recently greenlit by EA, and will be developed by EA Canada, behind the likes of the 'FIFA' series and the 'NHL' games.
Debuting on the PS2 and Xbox in 2004, the 'Fight Night' series has seen 5 entries thus far, from 2004's debut, 2007's 'Fight Night Round 3' which was a Playstation 3 launch title in Europe, to 2011's 'Fight Night: Champion' which received positive reviews and decent sales upon release.
Since then, the EA has focused on the UFC games as their fighting game of choice as that sport became the predominant fighting sport of the 2010's.